"Pulling a Webby"

We’d love to claim it as a post-modern nuance, a Zack Morris for the ’00s, a sly wink in acknowledgment of the audience in the style of Groucho Marx. But the much simpler truth is: Webby likes to look at the camera when he’s not supposed to. Precisely, when it’s filming him. For a film graduate with a masters in Film Production and Direction, this really is a baffling occurrence. But, the camera is a strange presence. It changes everything when it’s turned on. Some people over-act, some people stiffen up, and others look at it.

Over the past few years and hundred or so tapes (that’s right!), we’ve encountered this phenomenon quite a bit. It wasn’t long before we coined the phrase “pulling a Webby” for this unique device of looking at the camera when you’re not supposed to. Most of these moments have been left on the editing floor, but a couple have found their way into Fake Dog Films. The most obvious ones are in Fake Dog’s Lost parody. These almost work with the lo-fi and deliberately amateur-looking style; It’s clearly not meant to be taken seriously, this man is looking at the camera.

After a lot of slagging, Webby became less receptive to our jokes about “pulling a Webby” all the time. Possibly, he felt unappreciated as an actor. Then, we decided to make our music video for Distance. In it, Webby plays a tree; a funny concept, but the bulk of the film rests on Webby’s face. It was dangerous. It could have been awash with Webbys. But, it was to be his proudest moment, and he delivered a fine performace. Webby was Jim Carrey, and this was his Truman Show. He re-appropriated the term; “Pulling a Webby” was now to give a powerful, serious performance, for someone mainly known as a comedy actor. And there would be be no Yes Man to follow.

Even with the respect of his piers and an intense performance under his belt, Webby continues to look at the camera when he’s not supposed to. And he’s gotten better at it too. A quick glance, two frames worth of eyebal, and then he’s back to the scene. Blink and you’ll miss it. Gearoid assures me there’s a “Webby” is Crackdown 2, but I can’t see it. And Webby shows no signs of stopping. Watching the raw footage from A Dog’s Life Episode 2, I can honestly say I’ve never seen so many “Webbys” on one project. And though it’s endlessly frustrating to see a perfectly good take ruined by a “Webby”, it’s still pretty funny.

— Dara

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I Promised Myself I Wouldn't Cry

This is just a note to let people that I am going away traveling for a year. Don’t fret too much though, Dara and Gearóid will still be here keeping things going. We’ve been working very hard over the last month making more films that will be released during the coming year. I’ll still be on the message board and contributing blogs about my adventures in foreign lands.

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who watched our films and supported us and said such nice things. It’s all really appreciated.

— Paul

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Everybody Is Doing The Fake Dog

If you ever go to a concert, event or even just go out with the Fake Dog Men, you may notice us do a strange celebratory dance, do not be alarmed! This is The Fake Dog Dance. The origins of The Fake Dog Dance are often debated. Some say it’s a break dance gone wrong, others say it resembles a real dog cocking its leg for a wee.

The Fake Dog is lots of fun to do and we’re always adding new bits to it, I’m hoping it’ll be the new dance craze that will sweep the nation, much like The Rock The Boat or to a lesser extent The Macarena.

If you want to give it a go, help is at hand. Dara has very kindly offered to model the Fake Dog and show you how it’s done.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Easy as that! You may recognise the backdrop to Dara’s dance as the beach that Cannon and McGrath cleaned up after a reported crime-wave in the area in Crackdown 2.

So if you are ever at a famous landmark why not strike a pose and do The Fake Dog. Get someone to take a picture and be sure to post it on the message board. Happy Fake Dogging!

— Paul

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Fake Dog's Ocean Race

For those of you who may not know, the Volvo Ocean Race had a stop-over in Fake Dog’s home of Galway a few weeks ago. The boats were there for about a week, and there were festivities aplenty, including live music, food stalls, a cinema tent and much more. Myself and Paul popped down one of the days (and nights) to see what all the fuss was about.

— Dara

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Sequels

To start us off, a lovely dictionary definition. A sequel is “a narrative that is written after another narrative set in the same universe, especially a narrative that is chronologically set after its predecessors” [1]. When I say “sequel” in this blog, I mean a direct sequel, because if I start talking about a series, it could be never-ending!

So, sequels. The get-rich quick way of making films. Why bother being original when you can pop out another narrative with ready-made characters? Or so the argument goes. While many sequels fall into this category, there are quite a few that are better than their predecessor, with a better storyline, more rounded characters, and general improvements based on criticisms of the first film.

Sequels always have the immediate disadvantage of being compared to the film they’re succeeding. Many sequels that are considered to be poor would have likely fared well if critiqued separately. Some people are so attached to the first film that they refuse to enjoy its sequel. And then there are those films which were so bad, you’d wonder how they ever got a sequel.

I’m not going to dwell on the argument of whether a sequel should or should not be made, that can be done elsewhere. I’m going to look at some sequels that, in my opinion, are better than their predecessor, while putting others to the back of my mind.

The first that comes to mind is Terminator 2, given the recent release of another in the series that would be good for the case against sequels. But this, just the second in the series, was better than the first, darker and more brutal, and still very entertaining! On the opposite end of the violence spectrum, there’s Toy Story 2, which I enjoyed immensely (I have it on VHS somewhere!). I never thought much of the first, but I could watch this sequel over and over. It’s not strained as a sequel and you’d be hard pushed to find a bad word said about it.

Thinking of more sequels, I’m brought to comic book films, and the thought that the second film of all the recent ones is the best. X-Men 2 and Spiderman 2 were much better than the first ones, and Batman: The Dark Knight somehow improved on Batman Begins, which was a great film. A great case for sequels!

There are other sequels which are widely regarded as being as good or better than their sequels, but I am not in a position to judge them as I’ve either not seen them in a long time or at all. These include The Godfather Part 2, Return of the Jedi, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Please leave a comment if you have anything to say about these!

Though I’ve only talked about films here, I should point out that the inspiration for this blog came from playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2, a game that was better than the original in every way, something very rare. And the Sonic games have never reached that greatness since. Well, maybe briefly.

So, what do you think? Are these sequels better than their originals? Have I left out one you thought was good? Leave a comment!

— Gearóid

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Down Your Memory Lane: Making Anorak

I thought it might be nice to share some recollections of our films in the form of a little “making of”, for anyone who might have wondered what goes into making a Fake Dog Film. If nothing else, it’ll keep our memory fresh.

I figured I’d start with a nice, simple one; our music video for The LK. Despite the length of its unwieldy title, Anorak and Other Complicated Words Beginning With an A, the video itself is well under 2 minutes. Upon re-watching the film, the first thing I was shocked to realise was that its release date was May 26th 2007! Almost 2 years ago. Time enough, then, for some analysis.

Anorak began after an unexpected meeting with the Swedish duo The LK after they played a gig in Galway. I had never heard of them before that, but after an impressive show Paul and I ended up talking to them. They were very nice; they gave us a beer, and we told them we’d make them a video. We listened to their album, which was very poppy and electronic, and tried to pick out a song that we thought might make a good video. Inevitably, we ended up picking the opening track. Its brevity may have had something to do with it, as the only other music video we had released at this point was just over a minute long.

After Paul and I settled on a concept, I mailed a few sketches and the basic premise along to the band. They seemed to like it, and asked if we could play with the colours in it a bit, which we did. As the most available actors we knew, Paul and I decided we would play most of the parts; a handy mixture of vanity and convenience. Paul played the main part, and I played all the others, bar the female ones (though I’m sure even that was considered at some point). On reflection, Paul agrees that “logistically, it was very handy for Dara to play so many parts. It added to the surrealism of the video – a community of Daras.” A terrifying thought, indeed.

And so, the two of us set off with a camera, tripod and a gear bag of various costumes to our location in Mervue, Galway. Heading down in costume in a pair of shorts, with an Ireland jersey and a big jacket, Paul quipped I looked like I could be the next Ireland manager (a position which was in doubt at the time). I changed costumes as we went along, using a bush in front of a church as my changing room, surprisingly, to little scandal. I shot Paul’s shots, and he shot mine. That was the extent of our crew. The shoot went relatively smoothly, with some lovely weather and only one public altercation; upon viewing my “Alcoholic” costume, an elderly man left his house to give us a good telling off. We quickly won him over by agreeing with everything he said, though, and continued on shooting. After we had shot all we could on our own, it was time to call on the ladies to play their parts.

The “Attentive” mother was played by Julie Tierney (who also appears in Distance and Crackdown 2) and “A” was played by Caoimhe Connelly. As we only had one Anorak, we had to shoot Paul’s and Caoimhe’s scenes separately, swapping anorak and label. Cheap, but effective. With a little help from Caoimhe, we took the shot with me and Paul. We spontaneously decided Paul should look up to the sky, as he had looked down from it at the beginning. This came about when Paul mentioned he had seen “someone looking up at the sky and it looked cool.” After the closing tracking shot, we noticed increasing delinquent activity in the area and, with the film pretty much in the bag, we decided to call it a day. As good a reason as any, I believe.

Paul and I have always had a soft spot for Anorak. It was one of our quickest shoots. It was shot in one day, on one tape, with time to spare. The only two people on set for the majority of the shoot were us. I’ve always thought film sets are more fun with less people, and Anorak was fun to shoot. As Paul says, “It was really enjoyable to shoot, we knocked it out in an evening.” Looking back, I see a lot of faults, especially with the editing. There are certain edits that don’t really work for me, and I don’t think they did at the time, they were just out of necessity. It wouldn’t fly now, but it’s nice to see a progression in our work (after 2 years, I’d hope so!). I still think the premise is strong, though. It’s about as overtly high-brow as Fake Dog has gone. This may be the reason it is our most divisive video. Some people hate it – and they tell us! The main complaint being “I didn’t get it.” This made us very conscious of the video’s faults, for a while. That’s why we take a special pride when someone tells us they like Anorak – and they tell us, sometimes.

Watch Anorak in our films section.
See photos from the shoot.

— Dara

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